Road safety campaigners put the boot into Premier League stars

Road safety campaigners have slammed ‘reckless’ Premier League footballers after a string of top players were prosecuted for driving offences. In the latest case City player Michael Johnson has been banned from the road for three years after he admitted drink-driving.

Manchester City's Michael Johnson has become the latest of a string of Premier League players to be prosecuted for driving offences

Road safety campaigners have slammed ‘reckless’ Premier League footballers after a string of top players were prosecuted for driving offences.

In the latest case City player Michael Johnson has been banned from the road for three years after he admitted drink-driving.

His shame comes in the same week as City ambassador and World Cup winner Patrick Vieira and United striker Danny Welbeck were both fined for speeding on Manchester roads.

And the M.E.N. has put together an entire team of eleven players and two substitutes made up of stars linked to teams in the region who have been prosecuted for driving offences in the last two years.

Franki Hacket, spokeswoman for the road safety group Brake, said: "It is appalling to hear of so many Premier League football players behaving recklessly behind the wheel.

"It seems as if some high-profile footballers believe they are above the law and due to the success that they have think that they can behave in such a horrifying way and ‘get away with it’."

City midfielder Johnson, 24, a former rising star whose career has been blighted by injury, took his place in the rogue XI as he was given a three-year ban.

Magistrates heard he smashed his black Mercedes CLS 350 into a parked BMW near his home when he was already on bail for suspected drink-driving.

The impact propelled the BMW 50 yards down the road before demolishing a garden wall and a pillar.

Johnson collapsed on a grass verge with knee and head injuries following the 3.40am smash on Grangethorpe Road, Urmston, on May 31.

Johnson pleaded guilty to being unfit to drive through drink.

He also admitted drink-driving in Manchester city centre two months before the crash.

On that occasion police stopped him in the same Mercedes close to Blackfriars viaduct on Bridgewater Way in the city centre just before midnight on February 24.

District Judge Khalid Qureshi banned him from the roads for three years, fined the player £3,000 plus £400 costs and ordered him to pay a £15 victim surcharge for the May 31 offence.

He was also banned for three years, fined £2,500 plus £100 costs and ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge when he pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol for the February offence.

Judge Qureshi ordered that the road bans run concurrently, meaning he is banned from getting behind the wheel for a total of three years – the minimum disqualification for anyone who anyone caught drink-driving for a second time in ten years.

Yesterday the M.E.N. revealed how United and England striker Welbeck was fined £60 and given three points after he was caught doing 82mph in a 50mph zone on Princess Parkway in Northenden.

And earlier this week City’s director of football Vieira was banned for six months and fined £1,000 after he was caught doing 61mph in a 50 zone on the M60.

Other top players in the north west punished for speeding in the last two years include Shay Given, Carlos Tevez, Peter Crouch, Aleksandar Kolarov, Darren Fletcher and Kevin Nolan.

Motoring offences have also been notched up by Chris Eagles, Jermaine Pennant, Dietmar Hamann and El Hadji Diouf.

Miss Hacket added: "Footballers are role models for thousands of people and by choosing to speed and drink-drive, often repeatedly, they send out a worrying and dangerous message that this behaviour is acceptable.

"The consequences of such irresponsible behaviour can be devastating, often resulting in the death and serious injury of innocent bystanders.

"Driving remains the most dangerous thing most people do regularly, and speeding and drink-driving between them kill nearly seven people every week across the UK.

"We would urge the courts to make an example out of these offenders and ask all drivers to commit to save lives on our roads by staying sober, slow, and with your mobile phone switched off out of reach."

ROGUE XI:

City’s Michael Johnson was banned from the roads for three years for crashing his car while unfit to drive through drink. He was on bail for drink-driving at the time.

United and England striker Danny Welbeck was this week fined after he was caught doing 82mph along the 50mph Princess Parkway.

City's Aleksandar Kolarov was fined £1,500 in February 2012 for doing 48mph in a 40mph zone in his Mercedes.

City star Carlos Tevez was fined in September last year after he was caught speeding in his Bentley. He was doing 38mph in a 30mph zone.

Peter Crouch , of Stoke City and England, was fined £1,000 in August after he was caught doing 49mph on a 30mph zone in Macclesfield, his home town.

City's goalkeeper Shay Given escaped a driving ban in December, 2010, despite being caught doing 75mph along the 50mph Princess Parkway in his Bentley. He was fined £60.

United’s Darren Fletcher was fined £625 and ordered to pay £900 costs in January, 2010, for a motoring offence. He failed to provide information about who was at the wheel of his Range Rover when it was caught speeding in Cumbria.

Former Bolton player El Hadji Diouf – a serial parking ticket collector – had been driving without a valid licence for seven years, we reported in 2010.

Former City star Dietmar Hamann was banned from driving in February, 2010, after he was caught drink-driving in his Range Rover.

Former Bolton player Kevin Nolan landed in court last year after he was clocked doing nearly twice the limit outside Newcastle's training ground.

City's football development manager Patrick Vieira was this week banned for six months and fined £1,000 after he was caught speeding on the M60.

Substitutes:

Former United star Chris Eagles was banned from driving in April after he was caught using his mobile while speeding in his Bentley.

Another Stoke player Jermaine Pennant was handed a suspended sentence in April and banned from the roads for three years after he was caught twice the limit on his way to his home in Altrincham. It was his third drink-drive offence in eight years.

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